“There may be two ways to interpret Ankara’s silence over the Israeli airstrikes in Syria for now — that it’s all about the timing, coinciding with the ongoing compensation talks in Jerusalem and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s upcoming visit to the White House scheduled for May 16,” I wrote yesterday. Speaking at his Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) parliamentary group meeting today (May 7), though, Erdogan briefly touched upon those Israeli airstrikes at the very end of his speech and declared them “unacceptable.” In other words, Ankara’s silence on Israeli airstrikes is no more, but Erdogan’s comments today were quite measured compared with his previous remarks about Israel — his anger this time is clearly directed at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
It’s still, however, difficult to square the logic as to how the Israeli airstrikes are going to help Assad to stay in power. “These strikes are extended to Assad’s hand on a golden plate to boost [his chances of staying in power],” Erdogan said. “Assad is trying to cover up the massacre in Banias by using the Israeli strikes as an excuse.”
Erdogan’s comments today are sadly an expression that he has not broken free from political Islam’s obsession with Israel. He could not separately assess Assad’s cruelty and Israeli strikes in Syria. And one could have only wished that Erdogan spoke differently this time and did not attempt to use Israel as an excuse for Assad’s incredible survival after almost three years in a bloody civil war.
The fact remains that whatever Ankara has calculated as the longevity of the Assad regime, has been proven to be wrong. And for the Erdogan government, which claims to have true expertise about Middle Eastern politics, this miscalculation should also speak about the depth of their expertise and understanding of the region. Not that Erdogan’s policies are directly responsible for the Syrian tragedy, but I have argued all along that the Turkish prime minister has wrongly invested in his friendship with Assad, and then given up too soon in doing the hard work of trying to bridge the differences between the regime and the opposition by declaring regime change in Syria as its new policy. This is not about Turkey, and has never been, nor the international community, but about the Syrians — and there seems to be a deadly deadlock in exiting the bloodshed in Syria.
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